How Much Will It Cost to Get Your Own Wikipedia Page?

Wikipedia may be the “free” online encyclopedia, but if you want your very own factual and well-written entry, it’s gonna cost you. Record producer Erez Safer and filmmaker Aaron Wertheimer have launched their own business which will write, research and post Wiki entries — at a cost.

However, Safer and Wertheimer don’t author entries for just anybody. You have to be somebody. Or something. The pair will turn down a potential client if there isn’t enough information about them to warrant a citation or page. They chose their clients carefully and then write the posts from the comforts of their home.

“A lot of people aren’t Wiki worthy,” Safer says.

Their clients consist of recording artists, newspapers and beverage makers, and they tailor their entries to assist the client in promoting a personal brand without sounding encyclopedic or boring. They still write according to Wikipedia’s criteria of neutrality, notability, sourcing and original research.

However, they are breaking one golden rule that governs the site, and is likely broken by lots of other people in secret, with their service. Wikipedia is a free online space that was created organically, not for profit. Founder Jimmy Wales has even gone on record to state it’s against policy for people to profit from the site, which Safer and Wertheimer are certainly doing.

“The idea of paid editing is generally frowned upon” is the company line issued by Jay Walsh, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, which is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia. He continued, “That being said, it’s a fairly open question.”